HungFist wrote:
As for Kagawa and the music, unfortunately I can't remember anymore.

Lol. I watched some clips and this movie is not for me. Thank you for your response, though. As for Chiba, couldn't pick him out of a lineup. He may be quite a fellow, but he is not in movies that interest me. Kind of like that guy who asked about pinky violence, "People watch this stuff?" Different strokes.

Chiba is damn cool, but a fair few of his 70s films suffer from shakey-cam during the fights that results in seizures! He also seems to lack the same talent pool as HK's greatest - it seems he ends up facing Masashi Ishibashi in every film, with the same damn choreography!

I actually prefer Chiba's karate films to almost any HK kung fu films, with maybe a few exception (The Prodigal Son, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, etc.) for number of reasons

- The intensity. While Chiba's films lack the state of art choreography found in HK, they often pack more intensity. HK old school fighting has a tendency to resemble Peking Opera - actors performing endless fancy moves in fight scenes that go on forever and merely suggest the fighters posses no danger to each other. Chiba's karate films on the other hand seem more inspired by samurai movies - every single strike could kill you, which makes the fights much more intense. It's a bit ironic considering the lack of full contact, as opposed to HK's true-full contact. But of course this doesn't apply to all HK films, and some of HK's total nutcases, such as The Prodigal Son and some of Jackie fights, are in a league of their own.

- The kick-ass factor. The Japanese 1970's action films were usually tightly packed (running around 85 min), ultra-violent and all around kick ass. HK martial arts films on the other hand often suffered from clumsy comedy bits and too much storyline. Neither the Japanese nor the Chinese had any storytelling talent, but the Japanese kept the storyline to absolute minimum, while too many HK films attempted to tell a dramatic story and ended up merely boring the viewer between the fight scenes.

- Toei casting! While perhaps a turn off for some, I love the fact that every time you watch a 70's Toei action film you can recognize at least a dozen cast members. They had like 20 regular actors for each genre, of which half could be found in any genre film. Masashi Ishibashi especially gets grand applause every time he makes a villain appearance (I must have seen him playing a bad guy for more than 20 times).

- Chiba. A wise man once said: "Even bad Chiba films have one good thing about them: Sonny Chiba". The most motherfucker karate asshole that ever walked the earth! Love the guy to death!

Of course some Chiba films had poor fights (no wonder with him making up to 7 martial arts films per year). The shakey cam is also true and regrettable, but I don't think it ruined the films in question. The Oyama films (especially Karate for Life) feature my favorite Chiba fights. In comparison, I don't care nearly as much for Sanada's fights, which are much more HK style...

The karate demon!

And The Street Fighter is simply one of the greatest movies ever made anywhere, period!

I've seen Shinjuku midare machi (without subs) and it's a rather good one by Chusei Sone. An easy going 70's time capsule / youth film, with sex, booze and rock n' roll. Could've easily been a mainstream release. Actually I'd rate it higher than some of ATG's productions or Tatsumi Kumashiro's Nikkatsu films.

Oh, and you've got some Nikkatsu action films there too. Very cool! I might watch them with your subs!

Whoaaa! The Evergreen Roman Porno retro comes to my hometown! Get to see Love Hotel and Retreat Through the Wet Wasteland on 35mm!! (though I own both on dvd). Plus unreleased-on-dvd gems like Rape and Death of a Housewife (Noboru Tanaka) and Chusei Sone's Hakuchu no onna gari which is supposed to be an ultra-violent survival game (promotional material below). In addition there's 10 other movies, some that I haven't seen, some that I have (Kumashiro, Konuma, more Tanaka etc.)

That's really odd, even if they'll possibly release SEX & FURY as part of Volume 2, as I suspect. Maybe there was some shuffling around of titles and they didn't bother to change the cover art? Frankly, the only good thing I expect to come from this release are the subtitles for IJOU SEIAI KIROKU: HARENCHI. Since both included films already exist as Toei releases I fully expect HK Video to follow their established pattern and just do shoddy NTSC-PAL conversions. The only two times they did genuine PAL transfers was when they were dealing with films unavailable on NTSC DVD at the time: ORGIES OF EDO and YAKUZA'S LAW.

By the way, IJOU SEIAI KIROKU: HARENCHI has also just been released on DVD in Germany, following a previous VHS release there:

The German dub from the VHS is included, as is the Japanese audio and German dubtitles.

This film was directed by Nikkatsu's action film specialist Yukihiro Sawada (Retreat Through the Wet Wasteland) and features quest appearance by none other than Yusaku Matsuda.

So how on earth did a Nikkatsu Roman film come out all of a sudden? Geneon stopped releasing them a few years ago already. Well, by the time they started going oop, Happinet started re-issuing them. But no one told me they were also adding new titles to the DVD catalogue...

On the Pinku front, I noticed that Amazon (US) has a bunch of Nikkatsu Roman Porno early 80s films for sale now, put out by Impulse Pictures under the "Nikkatsu Erotic Films Collection" header. Anyone check these out yet? Apologies if this is covered in another thread. Here are the ones I could find (links to Amazon page):

I haven't been following pink releases much recently, rather the opposite, I just had my friend visit my FI home and box the pinkus before I come for a visit with the kanojo during the holidays. No need to traumatize the poor thing - yet

I did slip into the theater to catch a few of the Evergreen Roman Porno retro screenings on 35mm, though a badly timed cold and astronomical ticket prices had me stay home most of the time.

* and yes, I know roman porno isn't technically pink cinema, but give me a rest you purists out there, it's too much to ask to separate Japanese skin flicks into a dozen different categories referred with different terms. Can't we just do with three or four terms? Hell, half of my Japanese friends have never heard the term "pinku eiga" (pink film)... I have to explain it to them every time.

There is one that Amazon refused to carry because of the cover art. I think it was EROS SCHOOL: FEELS SO GOOD. My favorites so far have been TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN IN JAIL: CONTINUES (which plays a lot like a pinky violence film) and ZOOM IN: SEX APARTMENTS.

even though i can get them for $9 each, i've held off on many of them as those that i've bought haven't been upto much. 'sex apartments' is the only one i'd say was great, everything else pretty mediocre, except, at a push 'eros school' for being pretty outlandish at times. watched 'sex hunter - wet target' this week and i'd say the politic edge that can be seen there is pretty cliched and not that imaginative to my eyes (perhaps i don't know much about the whole usa-japan post-war thing) and so wondering, for the most part, what they were thinking (if they were) when they made these choices. unless they were hoisted upon them.

hey not sure where to put this but ive been looking for - Kokosei Bancho : Shinyahoso (1970) aka Girls' high school Boss : Midnight broadcasting...if anyone has this or knows where i can purchase it please let me know.... thanks

skeugh wrote:hey not sure where to put this but ive been looking for - Kokosei Bancho : Shinyahoso (1970) aka Girls' high school Boss : Midnight broadcasting...if anyone has this or knows where i can purchase it please let me know.... thanks

Terrribly sorry that I can't help--was this ever even released on VHS? I'd desparately love to have this as well. Anyone know how many films in this series? The alternate titles mess me up.

In fact, perhaps someone could help me organize these fragments of info on Daiei and Toho youth/pinky violence films. Not sure if some of this is wrong or if some of these are actually the same film...